Monday, May 2, 2011

"Nail Prints" book seeks sales spike
First-time author Don Furr has come up with an unusual way of ensuring a literal sales spike for his book.

Each copy of his time-travel novel that takes readers back to Jesus' last days comes with a nail hole driven through it and can be displayed hanging on a small wooden cross.

Quest for the Nail Prints, published in March by Sheaf House Publishers and in its third printing, took Furr 13 years to write. He was inspired to pen the novel after reading Left Behind by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.

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Don Furr, author of 'Quest for the Nail Prints' (Sheaf House Publishers), at 'Christian Retailing's' Retailing ReBoot 2011, held last week at Florida Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando, Fla.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

﻿Congratulations to ANNIE HOFER who won the Quest Gift package. 17 FB Fans posted the Quest for the Nail Prints book jacket as thier FB profile picture reaching over 8,000 potential readers over a 3 day period!! Thank you and God's blessings and grace to all who joined us in helping us share Quest for the Nail Prints with the world.

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Everyone who posts the Quest for the Nail Prints book jacket as their profile picture on Facebook and leaves a comment on The Quest for the Nail Prints FB page from April 27 through May 1st will be entered into a drawing to receive a signed author copy of Quest for the Nail Prints and a surprise gift. One gift package will be awarded for every 50 people posting the book jacket as their profile picture, so your chance of winning is 1 in 50!...Click the link below, change your profile picture and ... Help us spread Quest for the Nail Prints to the world!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Quest for the Nail Prints by Don Furr

It will be very hard to separate the editor from the reviewer as I write this because many elements of Quest For The Nail Prints demonstrate perfect lessons for the aspiring writer and key marketing points for roving publishers. I wanted to stand and shout “Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” so many times.

When the paths of an emergency flight physician, confused but highly educated professor, and successful pastor intersect, it will be anything but an ordinary day at the office. As each individual boards a flight to the Holy Land, their motives couldn’t be farther apart, but a higher power has plans for a single mission. Pastor Paul and Dr. Elizabeth Stewart become immediate friends, while the bitter Professor Van Eaton finds any interaction with the two, especially his arch-enemy Pastor Paul, an inconvenience at best. Fate consistently throws them together until an isolated event becomes the glue that keeps them together as they embark on a mysterious and life altering adventure.

As the three are sight seeing together, Paul inadvertently videos two guards attempting to violate an innocent female in an alley. When the guards realize they have been taped, they instigate a chase that leaves Van Eaton injured and dependant on the medical skills of Dr. Stewart as well as the survival skills of Pastor Paul. As the three emerge from a building that was to be their refuge, they find Jerusalem has changed, or has it? As they witness a reenactment of the Messiah entering the city on Palm Sunday, it soon becomes clear that the reenactment is not so. They are standing in the Holy Land as Jesus passes by. The next week provides healing and restoration as they witness first handedly what it was like to see Jesus nailed to the cross. But what is the purpose in this experience? There is one, and as you complete the journey with them, you can’t help but smile at how perfectly things were choreographed.

Quest For The Nail Prints makes a perfectly obvious point that everything that God has done, including sending his son to die for us, has a reason attached. Nothing is done haphazardly. To experience the human side of the man who laid down his life for us is another great example of superior writing. If the author moved you to emotion-especially one on the same level as Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of Christ-you have encountered a writer that has depth.

Here is where the editor in me comes out. A good author makes the ending match the story. An exceptional author makes the story match the ending. Most writers think of a great story and try to fill in the ending, but authors that have depth and insight (and I’d like to think in the case of Furr-the whispers of God) write backwards. They know where they want the story to end, and fill in the details to match that ending. Many would argue the point and say it really doesn’t matter. I counter that your favorite novel is so because the ending was notches above the storyline. If you don’t have a hard hitting ending, you don’t have a story. Period.

Another point many will express distaste for is novels related to time travel. Historical fiction is one of the top selling genres on the shelf. Readers like to live vicariously through the characters in a different time and place-it’s the whole reading escape thing. Finding that you are suddenly in another place and time is a stretch of the imagination, but so is sci-fi. The whole crucifixion story is a stretch of the imagination because it doesn’t happen daily, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. It is totally relevant. If you could appear at the foot of the cross, or better yet, travel with Jesus for a week, would you discredit the experience because it’s not probable?

Publishers that refuse to see potential in time travel related manuscripts are missing out on some of the best pieces of Christian fiction. Furr has presented a killer example of how it works and works perfectly. Other authors-Scott Higginbotham, for example-have yet to see the fruition of their hard work, but I stake my reputation on the fact that many publishers that denied authors full artistic expression in this area will be changing when they see how readers embrace these storylines just as enthusiastically as any other genre.

Furr is an author to be watched. He does not operate as mainstream authors. If you doubt his creative ability to captivate you as a reader, one look at the layout of the book will win you over. Quest For The Nail Prints has a hole through the book-every single page-as a visually stimulating object lesson. Furr is not your run-of-the-mill author. He is a nightmare for those that want a cookie cutter manuscript, but a refreshing breeze of accuracy when it comes to what the reader really wants. I’d like to say the book is worth it for the time travel aspect alone, but that is not completely honest. Quest For The Nail Prints is a journey that the reader will embrace, page by page, emotion by emotion, and absolutely guaranteed to keep you thinking about the cross in a new and refreshing way. ~Mary Nichelson

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The first television commercial for "Quest for the Nail Prints" was filmed in the studios of the Memphis NBC station. It will begin airing on WMCTV (Channel 5) out of Memphis and reaching hundreds of thousands in Western TN. April 20th. The commercial goes next to the Nashville, TN comcast cable networks reaching all of Middle Tn and parts of Kentucky in late April! Check back often to see if it's playing in your area!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

March 1st marked the release of Quest for the Nail Prints...A thirteen year journey for Author, Don Furr. For some they would say the journey has come to an end with the release of the book, in reality it has only just begun. Now Don invites the world tojoin him and experience the Quest jouney ... we believe your life will never be the same!

Don signs a book for one of the last customers at the Quest release party on March 1, 2011

An empty cross....62 copies of Quest for the Nail Prints sold at the release party...just as there is a symbolic nail piercing through the entire book...it seems equally symbolic that as the release party wound down, the display cross for the book would be left bare...symbolic of the risen Christ.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

It was an exciting week as each copy of Quest for the Nails Print recieved the symbolic nail print. Every nail print on every book must be individually hand-driven. A very special thank you to Tommy and his staff at Pollock Printing in Nashville.

﻿We met at the printers on Friday as Quest for the Nail Prints was shipped to the distributors! (I picked up a few cases, too!!)

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Holding my first copy waiting to recieve my cases!

From there we were we off to APG (our distributor) in Nashville! I had 80 copies to sign for Media and Reviewers. I am overwhelmed and humbled by the response from reviewers and media. ﻿Praise be to God!

100 hundred copies with the hand-crafted display arrive at Promise Land Book Store in Paris, TN

The Mercers, owners of Promise Land Bookstore in Paris Tennessee. These people are very special to me. I had my first book signing there last year when my book was in the "test" phase and we formed a great relationship! They are truly a God-sent!

On Saturday, March 26, 2011 Quest for the Nail Prints arrived at Family Christian Book Store in Bartlett, TN where I will be hosting the international release party on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. The book store sold 2 copies as they were assembling the display! It was so exciting to be there and sign the books!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Haven’t we all dreamed of walking with Jesus? Wondered what it would be like to talk with Him as He peers into our eyes and tells us the secrets of why? Do you long to touch His face and callused hands, knowing full well that your only response could be nothing more than a trembling smile as He brushes away your tears and gazes into your soul? What if you could touch the scars . . . trace the outline of the nail prints, like Thomas?

Quest for the Nail Prints is the story of three ordinary people chosen by God for an extraordinary journey. A journey so amazing even they have a hard time believing that it is real. Through unrelated circumstances, Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, Reverend Paul Ryann, and Professor Leonardo Van Eaton find themselves sharing a journey to the Holy Land . . . when suddenly they are thrust back in time nearly two thousand years and find themselves face to face with the rugged, radical rabbi known throughout the region as Jesus of Nazareth.

This is the story of how a personal encounter with the living Christ in His time creates the journey of a lifetime! Not only for the characters traveling within the pages of the book, but for all who take the journey with them.

With thousands of books on the market, what makes this one different? There is literally a nail print individually hand driven through the entire book, from front to back. Why the nail print?

“The idea of the nail print surfaced during the first draft,” says Don Furr. “From the very start, I knew the part the nail prints would play. The idea quickly flourished into the nail prints marking every page, much in the same way I picture the nail prints touching every page of our lives.”

What others are saying about QUEST FOR THE NAIL PRINTS

“In this day and age we NEED more books like Quest for the Nail Prints. Mr. Furr has written an outstanding book. Not only a blessing but dare I say a ROAD MAP of Faith!!!! This book must be read.”

—Joseph S. Bonsall, Oak Ridge Boys and author of From My Perspective

“This was the BEST Christian fiction book I have ever read! Once in a while a great book comes my way that I not only enjoy reading and reviewing, but desire to promote and share with everyone I know. This is one of those books! I will be pointing bookstore owners that I know your way. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read and review Quest for the Nail Prints.”

—Allen R. Cook, The Book Review

About Don Furr

Don Furr can add to his list of accomplishments the title of author. A world traveler, Don is an accomplished actor and playwright who owns and operates a major exhibit services company. He and his wife reside in Memphis, Tennessee, and have three children and three grandchildren. He has piloted his Ranger helicopter for a local television station and is currently customizing a 1981 DeLorean as a replica of the car in the movie Back to the Future. He is an active member of First Baptist Church in Lakeland, Tennessee.